“Mayday! Mayday!” Star Wars Campaign Game 4

Thursday night, I  ran Game 4 of the ongoing Star Wars campaign for my fellow Fawcett Avenue Conscripts, using the Galactic Heroes sci fi skirmish rules set. 

The Imperials were about to take off in a small free trader starship, when a Rebel strike force boarded them. The goal of both sides was to  control BOTH the engine room and the bridge. Anything else would be a draw. 

The Rebels were led by Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren. Each led a squad breaching one of the ship’s two airlocks. The Imperial Navy crew was joined by an Inquisitor, the Second Sister (the former Jedi, Barriss Offee) leading some Deathtroopers. The photo at the top of the page are the various leaders used. 

The Navy crew set up in the bridge and engine room, and others set up in the main corridor as a reserve. The medical droid was in the cargo hold riding shotgun on an occupied bacta tank. 

With a good card draw, the Inquisitor stood Ready at the main airlock. As Ahsoka opened the hatch, the Inquisitor Pushed against the crowded Rebels, throwing some back but receiving some Shock herself as she faced her former friend, Ahsoka. Failing to draw any red cards, Ahsoka attacked anyways. The resulting epic lightsaber duel lasted a couple of turns, but Bariss eventually went Out of Action with a severed left arm. 

Ahsoka managed to clear out the bridge, rolling successive natural 10+ die rolls. Her accompanying Rebel Troopers mixed it up with the Deathtroopers in the corridor. 

Meanwhile, at the stern of the ship Sabine survived a couple of shots to the face (hooray for the Queen of Hearts!) and engulfed the entire engine room with her flamer. The flamer shot caused only Shocks, then the affair devolved into a series of Multiple Combats as figures moved into the engine spaces. Here, Sabine and the Medical droid had the advantage, being the only ones armed with close combat weapons (respectively, a vibroknife and surgical instruments). 

Back in the corridor, both sides took losses as another Multiple Combat mid-corridor was fed by successive activations. Ahsoka joined the fray, but she dropped her short shoto lightsaber and was then knocked out cold by a rifle butt to the head. 

By the 7th turn there were only two Imperial models left on the table. A Deathtrooper was down and wounded in the corridor facing a trio of blaster armed Rebels, and a double-shocked Navy rating stood outnumbered 3 to 1 in the engine room. The Imperials threw in the towel and we called the game. 

In the immediate aftermath of the game, the Rebels took off in their stolen ship. Sabine unceremoniously shoved the bacta tank out the cargo hold into space, eradicating whatever Imperial clone experiment lay inside. Ahsoka will have some time to recover from her concussion, and also to nurse Barriss back to health and try to convince the former Jedi healer to come back to the Light. 

xxxx

Thanks to Bill, Frederick, and Hugh for playing with me, and to Dallas for stopping by to hang out and show off some new figures from Sqaumous Miniatures, including a squad of Hoth veterans for me!

"An elegant weapon, for a more civilized age." - Painting Challenge Submission #2

Star Wars: Legion does not have a model for Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi, as he appeared in the original 'Star Wars' movie. 

Last year I purchased from Order66miniatures on Etsy three different 40mm size prints for that Old Fossil, all 3D sculpted by Madox 3D (Felipe Manivel). (This particular pose seems to be taken from the Star Wars: Rebels episode entitled "Twin Suns", when Ben finally defeated a half-prosthetic Darth Maul.) This year's Painting Challenge prompted me to finally get some paint on this figure.

Ben is a very nice print, with a dynamic pose, good anatomy (check out the face and those hands), and almost completely unnoticeable printing lines. I really like the flowing robes and tassels. I just used some brass wire for the lightsaber blade, instead of the resin one; I have real doubts about the separate resin blade holding up to gaming. I shaped the blade tip with a diamond dust file, which worked a treat on the soft metal.

I did my usual black priming with GW Chaos Black, and airbrushed zenithal highlights with Vallejo Dead White.  Face and hands were under painted in Vallejo acrylics, with details and blending in various artists' oils. 

I do have the book Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy, which has nice colour photos of Ben's costume.  I went with lighter values for his shirt, under tunic, and hooded robe, as opposed to the movie colours. Did some detailing with Payne’s Grey and Titanium White oils for the under tunic. Ben's brown robe was finished mostly with a few washes combining GW's Agrax Earthshade and Reikland Fleshade. I weathered his clothing, adding stains and little tears using artists' oils.

I have now painted 5 figures sculpted by Felipe, all taken from the original 'Star Wars' in 1977. Madox has a couple of Patreon pages,  illustrating his interests in both Space Wars and the Seven Years War. 

Scoring: 7 points for a 40mm figure (Darth Vader is over 45mm tall!), plus 20 bonus points for Death Star (Hubris). Hubris, thy name is Obi-wan Kenobi. Hubris to think he could properly train young Anakin, hubris to hold the the Jedi order's myopic worldview, and hubris to try and control the information that he provided to Luke. Plus, the Death Star is the location of Kenobi's final duel with his former padawan. Total = 27 points for this year's Challenge.

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Using Ben Kenobi in Star Wars: Legion

Star Wars: Legion only has rules for Obi-Wan Kenobi as a much younger man, representing him as a Jedi Master and General during the Clone Wars. The character's rules and command cards reflect this. I belong to an unofficial Star Wars Legion Custom Cards group on FB. Member Charlie Soden came up with some interesting cards to use Ben Kenobi during the Galactic Rebellion era, a generation after the events in the Clone Wars. Ben is less of a juggernaut in close combat, moving more slowly and inflicting less raw damage. Ben is still very much a master of defense, and is much more adept at using the Force, including the mysteries of becoming a Force ghost. (Note that there is a slight error in the character card below; Master of the Force: 2 allows the readying of 2 Force powers.)

  

Galactic Heroes - "These ARE the droids you're looking for!"

Last month I ran Galactic Heroes for the Conscripts. Regular Conscript Blog reader Pierre was in town, so I hosted a game at my residence.

In the previous game, Leia’s forces destroyed a power generator, resulting in damage to the automated defenses on the second table, located in another part of the town. At that time we used the Star Wars Legion rules, with its plethora of proprietary dice, markers, and cards. 

This time, six players ran the Empire and Rebel forces playing a variation of the “These aren't the bots...” scenario from the Galactic Heroes rulebook. Luke’s troopers faced off against Vader, Stormtroopers, and Scout Troopers. I used the stats for “A Faraway Galaxy” as a start, adding some weapons and giving each Force user 5 powers.

People picked up the gist of the rules very quickly. Early on very bad dice rolls meant that no one did anything besides run out of ammo. By mid game, both sides had determined that two of the 4 droids were not the target (Vader used the Force to pull a droid into contact; very cinematic!).

Luke cut down a Scout biker then leaped among an enemy squad, defeating several before going Out Of Action. Similarly, Vader shrugged off blaster hits, sabering or Force choking Alliance troopers before falling. The battle turned roughly 90 degrees.

Each force was in proximity to one of the two undetermined droids. I ruled that the next discovery roll would be at even odds (6+); the Imperials failed, leaving the second set of plans in the hands of the Alliance!

In the final turn there was a flurry of activity as the Rebels consolidated both droids with the plans on their left flank, and defeated a few more Stormtroopers. However, they did not manage to reach the small ship warming up in the docking bay.

The Conscripts enjoyed the game. The playing card activation keeps everyone engaged. Actions flow quickly. Some mistakes were made, mostly due to forgetting Traits. However, we agreed that the rest of the campaign will be played using Galactic Heroes!

With both Luke and Vader in bacta tanks, the next game will involve a desperate attempt by other Alliance leadership to transport the secret plans off-planet, and the Imperial actions to thwart the Rebel scum.